What's the lifespan of gut main/poly cross?

I bought a used Puredrive with VS / Pro Hurricane hybrid. When do I have to restring it? If the feel is okay, can I just keep playing with it until the main breaks? Or, dead poly will harm my arm eventually? I want to go for full bed of natural gut next time. I just don't want to waste good-looking main gut right now.

I bought a used Puredrive with VS / Pro Hurricane hybrid. When do I have to restring it? If the feel is okay, can I just keep playing with it until the main breaks? Or, dead poly will harm my arm eventually? I want to go for full bed of natural gut next time. I just don't want to waste good-looking main gut right now.

Click to expand...

- You can play with gut mains until it snaps. Gut's playability doesn't diminish much.

- Dead poly in the crosses will largely be overshadowed by gut's godliness in the mains. Back to my first point: If you've got gut in the mains, play it until it snaps.

- A good set of gut should last you at LEAST 20hours. With string savers, you can add 10hours to that.

- You can play with gut mains until it snaps. Gut's playability doesn't diminish much.

..

- A good set of gut should last you at LEAST 20hours. With string savers, you can add 10hours to that.

Click to expand...

Just to be clear OP, while those two statements may appear to be contradicting, what Say Chi Sin Lo means by 'lasting 20 hours' is time until it breaks. He is correct that gut truly does not 'go dead' like many synthetic strings, nor does it lose much tension after it's initial tension loss.

Pardon the pun, but provided it doesn't break, you can literally play with gut "until the cows come home"...

I know this has been answered before but I want to once again hear opinions on cutting out the poly cross only and reststringing? Also do you redo poly lower than originally to account for gut tension loss ?

I know this has been answered before but I want to once again hear opinions on cutting out the poly cross only and reststringing? Also do you redo poly lower than originally to account for gut tension loss ?

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with it. If you want to be safe have it mounted on the stringer when you cut out the crosses.

Should the poly be strung a bit lower than first time or alot lower ???

Click to expand...

I have done it every which way at some point but I would shoot for 5-10 lbs lower and then adjust from that point. There isn't really a wrong way to do it unless you go real extreme one way or another.

I know this has been answered before but I want to once again hear opinions on cutting out the poly cross only and reststringing? Also do you redo poly lower than originally to account for gut tension loss ?

Click to expand...

This tends to be a stringer's preference thing. Some will do it and swear by it; I will never do it nor for any customer.

This tends to be a stringer's preference thing. Some will do it and swear by it; I will never do it nor for any customer.

Click to expand...

I can understand for guarantee reasons someone not doing this for a paying customer, however for someone stringing themselves or for a friend there is NO good reason not to do it. Unless you're filthy rich.

I bought a used Puredrive with VS / Pro Hurricane hybrid. When do I have to restring it? If the feel is okay, can I just keep playing with it until the main breaks? Or, dead poly will harm my arm eventually? I want to go for full bed of natural gut next time. I just don't want to waste good-looking main gut right now.

Click to expand...

The longevity of your stringjob will depend on a number of variables: the gauge, tension, composition and texture of crosses, string pattern of your racket, your frame's stiffness/flexibility, your swing style, how hard you hit the ball, and your NTRP level.

You should certainly be getting 20 hours, but 30-50 is possible too. Personally I get ~70 hrs out of Pacific Classic 1.25 x MSV Co-Focus 1.18, and if I don't prestretch the mains I don't notice the crosses dying. But that's one of the benefits of CoF.

The only problem I've found with string lifetime is when the poly crosses lose tension the stringbed becomes too lose and therefore I lose some control. Adding a lot of stringsavers (65) along the outside of the stringbed has tightend up the stringbed and made it play almost as good as new (a little less spin). Also, I recently tried re-stringing just the crosses, and so far so good on that.

I can understand for guarantee reasons someone not doing this for a paying customer, however for someone stringing themselves or for a friend there is NO good reason not to do it. Unless you're filthy rich.

Click to expand...

I am not filthy rich and it's not a practice that I would ever do. If I can't afford to replace my stringbed, then I won't use those strings. Honestly, is that half set of gut worth the risk of damaging your frame? I'm not saying it will happen, I'm simply saying that it's far more likely than if you restring the entire racquet as it was meant to be.

Should the poly be strung a bit lower than first time or alot lower ???

Click to expand...

Good question. On my machine which is a 6 point mounting system the racket is nice and secure for cutting out the cross. I find that restringing the cross at the original tension seems to work fine. I'm not sure why this is the case because you would think the mains would have lost tension and the string bed wouldn't play the same. But for whatever reason it plays close to the original stringing.

I am not filthy rich and it's not a practice that I would ever do. If I can't afford to replace my stringbed, then I won't use those strings. Honestly, is that half set of gut worth the risk of damaging your frame? I'm not saying it will happen, I'm simply saying that it's far more likely than if you restring the entire racquet as it was meant to be.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree...

But then why not just full bed gut, if abiding by this theory then the poly cross other than to change feel is not really worth it.

I dont think I am going to do it, I feel like its a bit of a guessing game and to me the performance of my racquet and strings is EXTREMELY important and I need to know what I can expect from my strings not hope what I can expect.

The only problem I've found with string lifetime is when the poly crosses lose tension the stringbed becomes too lose and therefore I lose some control. Adding a lot of stringsavers (65) along the outside of the stringbed has tightend up the stringbed and made it play almost as good as new (a little less spin). Also, I recently tried re-stringing just the crosses, and so far so good on that.

Click to expand...

Exactly what just happened to me. I hit pretty hard all wings and after about 6 hours of play the control is SIGNIGICANTLY lower, not terrible but noticeable and I am having to steer shots a bit more, at first it was free wheeling and great spin. I am just not sure about just redoing the crosses, my game is about lots of racquest speed, I cant have a guessing game with my string beds, even a small guessing game..

The only problem I've found with string lifetime is when the poly crosses lose tension the stringbed becomes too lose and therefore I lose some control. Adding a lot of stringsavers (65) along the outside of the stringbed has tightend up the stringbed and made it play almost as good as new (a little less spin). Also, I recently tried re-stringing just the crosses, and so far so good on that.

I am not filthy rich and it's not a practice that I would ever do. If I can't afford to replace my stringbed, then I won't use those strings. Honestly, is that half set of gut worth the risk of damaging your frame? I'm not saying it will happen, I'm simply saying that it's far more likely than if you restring the entire racquet as it was meant to be.

Click to expand...

It won't damage the frame especially if minted on a 6 pt stringer. Further, poly goes dead in as quick as 6 hours while gut can last months. So I think it is extremely wasteful to cut out perfectly good gut for no good reason.